Former Strikeforce champ 'Jacare' Souza only focused on Herman and UFC future

The former Strikeforce middleweight champion will be a footnote in MMA history on Saturday when he fights on the promotion’s final card. He won’t get a chance to go out as its final 185-pound champion, but as far as he’s concerned, at least he gets to be a part of the show at all.

“Strikeforce: Marquardt vs. Saffiedine” takes place at Chesapeake Energy Center in Oklahoma City. The main card airs on Showtime (10 p.m. ET) following prelims on Showtime Extreme (7 p.m. ET). The card will not only be the last for the Zuffa-owned Strikeforce on Showtime, but the last in the promotion’s history. Its key fighters already have started to be booked for UFC fights and been folded into that promotion.

After a decisive 41-second knockout win over Derek Brunson in August, it was believed Souza would get the next crack at champion Luke Rockhold, who took the title from him in August 2010. Instead, Rockhold was to fight Lorenz Larkin for the title – though that fight ultimately never materialized with lingering Rockhold injury issues.

Larkin then moved into a fight against Souza, which apparently would have determined the next contender for Rockhold’s title, even though that title will be dissolved along with the scrapping of Strikeforce. But about a month ago, Larkin, too, had injury issues, and Herman stepped in.

“It doesn’t matter,” Souza told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com. “Things happened the way they were supposed to. I’m happy with the opportunity to fight, especially against someone like Ed Herman, a very difficult opponent.”

Herman, a veteran of Season 3 of “The Ultimate Fighter” who had a three-fight win streak snapped by Jake Shields this past August (though that loss was overturned when Shields tested positive for banned substances), took the fight with Souza when allegedly other UFC fighters weren’t interested in the one-time-only crossover to face “Jacare.”

“It makes me happy to know that I’m known as a tough guy whose adversaries have to think twice before accepting a bout,” Souza said. “I feel I’ve put in a lot of hard work regarding my wrestling and standup, and thankfully my submission game remains excellent due to my jiu-jitsu experience. It’s good to know that other fighters take me so seriously.”

Souza said as far as he understands it, he’ll be moving over to the UFC after Saturday’s Strikeforce finale. And once there, he wants to get busy in a hurry. And in an ideal world, he even could find his way onto a UFC show in his native Brazil this year, where he hasn’t fought since 2007.

“My goal is fight three times this year in the UFC if all goes well,” he said. “I feel they would book me for sure, based on my fight history in Brazil. Practically everyone who practices jiu-jitsu knows me, plus I do wish to fight in my own country.”

If all the potential activity for Souza, if he has his way, leads to another shot at Rockhold, great. If it leads to another shot at Gegard Mousasi, the only other fighter to beat him since his 2003 professional debut, great.

But he’s not going to call anyone out.

“I don’t seek payback,” he said. “I keep doing my job, and if I happen to be paired against someone who’s defeated me in the past, I’d be very happy. Gegard Mousasi, for example, is someone I like very much. He’s a friend of mine. But if it happens that we get matched up, for me, it would be great to face someone so tough who holds a win over me. I would gladly take that fight, given a chance.”

But before that chance can come, Souza has a tall order in front of him in Herman. And it’s a fight he’s not taking lightly.

“I expect it will be a typical Herman fight,” he said. “He’ll move forward, attempting to impose his will. Our styles should match up well. It should be a beautiful fight. I’ve never faced anyone who’d push me against the fence. I’ve been waiting for this opportunity. I want to see if he’ll really pressure me like that.”

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